This year’s programme also includes typically female discussions about literature. On Friday the 4th of November at 4 pm, the Pałac Pod Baranami will host a unique meeting of four exceptional women. These female writers, invited by Beata Stasińska – the moderator of the event – are very different, representing various cultures, languages and dictions. They include Namita Gokhale from India, Zeruya Shalev from Israel and Fleur Jaeggy from Switzerland. However, their work does have a common denominator. It is their attentive, sometimes dark and dense narrative about human relationships, often processing the authors’ own, traumatic experiences. Each of the writers creates interesting portraits of their male and female characters, often fulfilling their fundamental social roles and demonstrating the typical behaviour of men and women, parents and children. Each of the writers challenges the obvious truths and patterns, creating perspicacious, often ruthless analyses of the relationship between two people. Finally, each of them works under special pressure, which refers to female experiences, sensitivity and the socio-political context. Without it, the peculiar study of existential, social and moral pressure exerting its influence on their female characters would not be so potent.

Namita Gokhale is little known in Poland yet. She is a novelist, author of 6 books, and organiser of a literary festival in Jaipur. She strives to ensure that the festival presents literature created by women – socially and politically involved works, which is especially important in India. Zeruya Shalev and Fleur Jaeggy are well known to Polish readers. Don’t miss it!